Andres Torres

People have been asking to see clips of not-huge hitters who have good swings. I thought Andres Torres would be a good place to start since I have worked with him and have a very good understanding of his swing.

Andres is only 5'10" but can hit the ball as hard and as well as pretty much anybody, particularly when he...

Isn't trying to do too much with his lower body (generally the less, the better).

Doesn't get pull crazy.

Tries to hit doubles and lets God take care of the home runs.

In case you aren't familiar with my relationship with Andres, his biggest problem was that he had been taught to throw his hands at the ball. The result was a very slappy swing. I introduced him to the concept of Connection and The L and the result is the swing below.

The clips below date back to January 2009 when Andres and I had been talking for 6 months or so.

Andres Torres
January 2009

Andres Torres
January 2009

Andres Torres
January 2009

I could (and did) nit-pick the swings above...

There's a little too much bat wrap and reverse-rotation of his shoulders at set-up.

He does Shift and Load but he loads his hands a bit early (which contributes to excessive shoulder reverse-rotation and bat wrap).

He can't do this high, Alfonso Soriano leg kick consistently.

There's no sign of The Move in his lower body (and there should be given that he's standing in what is basically sand).

...but what really matters is that...

His Connection is great. He's not trying to throw his hands at the ball any more.

He tilts very well and maintains his Alignment especially well.

As a result, he's in a pretty much perfect Power L Position at the POC.

Andres Torres
Home Run to Right Field
10.30.2010
Continuous

Andres Torres
Home Run to Right Field
10.30.2010
Stop Frame

Andres Torres
Home Run to Right Field
10.30.2010
Annotated

The clips above shows Andres hitting a home run to right field during the 2010 World Series. This is obviously a great example of Tilt and maintaining Alignment.

You should also notice the more moderate leg kick in the clip above. He used a larger, Soriano-style leg kick during the NLDS and didn't hit well at all. We talked about this between the NLDS and NLCS and, while it took a couple of games, he was able to make the adjustment and finish very strong in both the NLCS and World Series.

Andres Torres
Home Run to Right Field
10.30.2010
Reversi

Andres Torres
Home Run to Right Field
5.16.2010
Reversi

Some of the things to pay attention to in these clips from 2010 include...

Timing: Notice how, by the time the pitcher releases the ball, Andres is at the top of his leg lift and is ready to start his stride. That is a Delaying Mechanism that lets him start his stride immediately to hit the fastball but Pause at the Top and delay the the start of his stride in order to hit an off-speed pitch.

Posture: Notice how he starts out crouched, with his weight on the balls of his feet, and then keeps his weight forward throughout his swing. That keeps his weight from getting back onto his heels and lets him use The Move.

Andres Torres
1.27.2012

The clip above shows Andres hitting a ball so hard that it punched its way through the net of the batting cage.

Andres Torres
Triple to Right Center Field
3.6.2012
Timing

In addition to showing what Andres' timing looks like when he does his double-tap...

Andres Torres
Triple to Right Center Field
3.6.2012

...the clip above is a great example of Alignment and how good Alignment translates into power. The ball above would have gone 450 feet it if hadn't been hit dead into a strong wind.

The clip below shows Andres ripping a hard single to right field.

Andres Torres
Single to Right Field
4.3.2012

The thing to notice is the simplicity of this swing. He starts with the barrel a bit above the horizontal, in the plane of his shoulders, and in a position of good Alignment. Then, and because he starts low and stays low, Andres is able to just rotate through the ball and hit it hard without having to try very hard.

One of the reasons why Andres can hit the ball hard without having to try to hit the ball hard is because this swing is very efficient, and this swing is efficient because Andres loads his hands fairly late. Notice how he doesn't start to load his hands until his front foot starts to go forward toward the pitcher.

You should also notice how, rather than getting his front foot down early, Andres gets his front foot down on time. Notice how he doesn't start his stride until the pitcher releases the ball and how he doesn't plant the heel of his front foot until the ball is 1/2 to 2/3 of the way to the plate.

Andres Torres
RBI Single to Left Field
5.1.2012

The clip above shows a single to left field, and the thing to notice is how this is basically Paul Molitor's swing or a right-handed version of George Brett's swing.

This is a very nice, simple swing that is going to lead to tons of hits if he can stick with it.

Notice how he just takes a small step into the ball and loads his hands as he does so, which creates Separation between his hips and his shoulders, and then Rotates into the pitch. The only reason he hit this ball a bit thin was because the pitch was inside and he wasn't able to pull his hands in enough to hit the ball off the the sweet spot of the bat. Instead, he hit the ball off of the handle a bit more than he should have.

Andres Torres
Home Run to Left Field
5.9.2012

While Andres has struggled with sticking with his mechanics, and not tweaking his way out of his good swing, he did hit a home run in May with a generally nice swing that is a good example of Starting Low and Staying Low.

Andres Torres
Single to Center Field
7.27.2012

Over the course of the year, Andres has struggled with his weight getting back onto his heels and hitting the ball too far out in front, both of which will tend to rob him of power. However, he has been working on this problem and the clip above provides evidence that he is making progress.

Andres Torres
Triple to Left Center Field
10.2.2012

Andres did finish the 2012 season well, in large part because he got back to trying to drive the ball and not just get on base.